My mom was not an animal lover. I finally talked her into letting me get a cat when I was in 8th or 9th grade. She hated it. She couldn't stand it when Ginger would rub up against her legs. As an adolescent, it was quite fun to watch. Adolescents are wicked creatures.

In the summer between junior and senior year of high school, my best friend fled the abuse at her home and came to live with us. Mom loved kids and adopted all my friends as her own. Sherry had a job and I was the driver. We got into all kinds of trouble like blowing the muffler off the car pretending it was a glass pack on a tricked out race car, or getting stuck in the mud out a back road, or….well, you get the picture. Mom went grey young for a reason. Anyway, nothing got us in as much trouble as the monkey incident.

Once upon a time…ok, MOST of the time, exercise is something I do as an absolute chore. The whole idea of dragging myself outside and doing something till I swear…errrr, I mean SWEAT…is enough to send me to bed for a well deserved nap. I hate exercise. It's such a drag. However, I dearly LOVE to go outside and play!

I spent some time this weekend planning the last two excursions for the Colorado trip. First will be a week with the grand daughters off in the camper. I want them to have great memories of camping with Nana so we're going to do a number of fun activities. An adventure park, a pool, fishing on a pontoon boat, a rodeo, campfires, s'mores, hikes, and counting the stars. I want them to have an appreciation of the great outdoors. The second trip will be with one of my West Virginia friends. Camping in Colorado is on her bucket list. She texted me yesterday and said, "Hey! The Grand Canyon is only 5 hours from where we'll be. Let's go!" I'm like "Are you kidding me??? We won't find a campsite within 200 miles of there! You have to plan that a year in advance!" Then I checked and the very first campground I checked, a KOA, had an opening for one night…the night we could go. Get out! So, we're going to the Grand Canyon…in August…you know, when it's really HOT! THAT'LL be fun! Thank God it's a full hookup site so we can have AC and unlimited showers! And my friend gets to check something else off her bucket list.

I could live in a place with endless summer. Where things grow…green…all year round. And if I wanted a change, I could travel there. If I wanted snow, I could go to Texas in, like…March or something. No, seriously….I love the endless possibilities of summer. I love wearing as few clothes as I can get away with. I love going barefoot. I love eating outdoors. I love warm rain. I love all the wonderful activities of summer…camping, fishing, hiking, biking, kayaking, picnics, outdoor music festivals. I love the wild flowers of summer. And the food fresh from the garden. I love the gatherings of friends around a campfire. The sound of kids outside playing. The sound of rain on a tin roof. Lazy days…lazy ways. Staying up late. Watching the moon and stars. Cooking over a fire. A nap in the shade of a big tree. I love everything about summer. It cannot last long enough for me. Yes, right now….this moment. This is my favorite time of the year. I want to bottle it up and keep it on my shelf.

I love the sky. No matter where I am, I'm always looking up. The skies in the west are wide open spaces…ever changing majestic views in every direction. Just as the Ohio River changes with each passing moment, so too does the western sky. I love the way the light changes, the clouds forming and reforming into every shape imaginable. Sunrise, sunset, gathering storms…all are a canvas for the miracle God creates for us every day.

I dread election year. We are already experiencing the slings and arrows of misfortune…do we have to add the barbs and daggers of divisiveness? I don't discuss politics on Facebook. I know what I believe. I respect that others believe differently. This is the foundation our country was based on. Brotherly love. We can disagree without being unkind. The rhetoric is already bad out there. The name calling, the personal attacks, the discrimination…I hate it. The advent of social media has allowed public discourse without the governor that face-to-face interaction provides. We no longer have to look the other person in the eye when we slam them, degrade them, mock them, deride them. It is unseemly and inhumane. It is uncivilized. It scares me because you can't put smoke back in a bottle. There is only one way to create change and that is to BE the change.

Gone are the days when I've relegated myself to the third row. I don't regret anything I've done in my life because every step I made turned me into who I am today. But I do have some wishes. I wish I would have taken more chances, made more mud pies, rode more roller coasters. I wish I would have listened to that doctor and gone to medical school. I wish I wouldn't have tried so hard to fit square pegs into round holes. I wish I wouldn't have been so afraid.

Lisa sparkles. She is my mentor in the happy wanderer department. Young enough to be my daughter, she is actually one of my Sisters…Sisters on the Fly, that is. When I first met her, she was who I knew I wanted to be when I grew up. She can make the BEST Cream of Mushroom Soup in a Dutch oven. She can dance till the sun comes up. She can walk into a roomful of strangers and have them eating out of her hand in five minutes. She has a smile that melts your heart and you want to be her best friend forever. She never treated me any different just because I was new at camping, new at being a Sister, new at being alone. She is brighter than the sun!

I've had the big trailer for 9 months now. She's 29'5" from the hitch to the spare tire on the back. That's long when you're used to 16'. Add the truck and I'm a good 42' long with a topper and a kayak. I'm definitely haulin'!

This life isn't for everybody. I've had women drop their jaw when they learn I live full time in this thing. Most men want to give me a high five. I tried explaining to someone how I don't like sleeping inside houses now because they make me feel claustrophobic. It's not the SIZE…it's the idea of being cooped up in one spot. I feel sorry for people whose views never change. They don't know the joy of taking off on vacation and packing everything you own. You literally have everything you need right behind you. I love traveling and pulling over at lunch time to fix something to eat, stretching out for a little siesta, then heading back out on the open road.

Way, WAY back in the day, I used to bake competitively. There were three of us gals…Ryb, Judy, and me…that would enter three pies into Saturday's competition, and three cakes on Sunday's at the Carbondale Mountain Fair. Almost without fail, the Three Amigas would take home all of the ribbons! SO unfair…but SO fun! Invariably, the field would be heavily laden with "Death By Chocolate" and any manor of liqueur-laced lovelies so I would try to come up with something different that would catch the judges by surprise. This yummy taste of sunshine won me one of those coveted ribbons and has become the all-time family favorite for birthdays.